


How Small the Spark How Bright the Flame

by vamprav



Series: EAD 2020 [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Canon-Typical Violence, Darcy Lewis-centric, Evil Author Day 2020, F/M, Magic, Podfic Welcome, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Time Travel, Zombie Apocalypse, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:08:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vamprav/pseuds/vamprav
Summary: After the Snap, after half the world turned to Dust, the world goes even more to shit than anyone could even imagine.Darcy was one of the best at what she did, keeping people happy and making sure they were fed. She had more successful runs under her belt than anyone in camp but when one crazy sorcerer decides to use her as a guinea pig and she ends up in the past she doesn't quite know what to do with it.The Asset has never met anyone like the small brunette who'd broken them out of the HYDRA facility where he was being held but he can live with her being his new handler if she keeps feeding him the fluffy yellow things.AKA, Darcy gets shot-putted back in time and wins over The Winter Soldier with twinkies.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Series: EAD 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635100
Comments: 13
Kudos: 137
Collections: Minions' writings





	1. Asgardian Beast

**Author's Note:**

> This will eventually get finished but I wanted to get the first two chapters out there at least.

Darcy ran through the streets of what had once been New York City, the howls of the Beasts behind her dogging every step she took. She had a shotgun cradled in her arms but if she turned around to shoot they’d be on her in a handful of seconds. She’d learned that quickly, everyone had, everyone still alive anyway.

There was a scar on her right thigh, just above her knee, it was the perfect imprint of a ten year old’s teeth. She’d gotten it a year after The Snap, when the Beasts had first started emerging.

It had been a girl, blonde hair, blue eyes, tiny little waif of a thing struggling to get by with both parents gone. She’d gotten sick, started running a fever of a hundred and three. After a day she couldn’t keep food down, couldn’t keep water down with meant Darcy had to figure out how to get a goddamn IV into a girl only weighing half of what she should have.

Most of the hospitals had shut down within a month of The Dust, unable to stay operational with over half their staff gone and the limited, rationed power that everyone was dealing with. Darcy had heard Stark had tried to keep the lights on in New York with the Arc Reactor he used to run his tower but that hadn’t been enough and when it blew, well everyone had heard that explosion.

She’d been scared and trying to hide it from the older kids as one by one they all started to get sick, tried to hide her own illness when it finally crept up on her. And then Annie had gone to sleep and she hadn’t woken up, she was still breathing but she just wouldn’t wake.

Darcy hadn’t even known about the Beasts at that point, too busy trying to care for ten kids with no help. Some societies came together after disaster, some fell to pieces in the hands of those left standing when it became clear that nothing was going to fix what had been broken.

She’d cried, sobbed over the soon to be corpse of the little girl that she’d only just started to get to know. And then Annie had woken up and when Darcy had looked into her red eyes and snarling face she had seen nothing of the little girl who’d staggered into Darcy’s warehouse only a handful of weeks ago.

Darcy had run, tried to lead the Beast away from the other children, all the other sick children. Darcy didn’t remember what happened after that, all she could remember was a sharp pain in her thigh and screaming her throat raw and then black.

She’d woken up a week later to the sight of someone’s ceiling, fever still running high but sane and sound enough of mind to process what had happened.

It had only gotten worse after that, no one knew quite why some people were immune to the disease and others weren’t but it took indiscriminately, young and old, weak and strong. What they did know was that if you didn’t wake from the fever within the first three days as a Beast then you wouldn’t turn.

Darcy shook the thoughts from her head and picked up the pace as the sounds of the mob behind her grew louder and louder. If she could just make it to the safe zone, just make it to the crater that had once been Avengers Tower then she’d be golden. The wards what few Asgardians still living had put up around the area wouldn’t let the Beasts through.

She was just glad that most of the Asgarians had already dealt with those of their race that had become Beasts. She’d seen a Beast turned Asguardian before, it hadn’t been pretty. Actually no, it had been pretty, gorgeous even and that was what had made it ten times worse than the human Beasts.

Darcy gulped air into her lungs as she skidded around a corner, thanking every living deity she could think of that the Beasts were fast but not nimble and not all that smart either. Only about half of the mob behind her would even realise she’d turned the corner and only another third of those would be able to turn the corner fast enough to be a threat.

Darcy lunged for the chain link fence blocking up one end of the alley, gripping her shotgun in one hand while she scrambled up it with agility she hadn’t had five years ago. She made it up and over, pausing at the top briefly to count the number of Beasts coming after her.

One, two, three, five, ten.

Shit, Darcy only had two shots in her gun plus another four rounds strapped to her belt. She wanted to keep those in reserve if she ran into one of the Asgardian Beasts. Most of them were dead but there were still about three unaccounted for, one was in Italy, the other in Japan, but the third, no one knew where the third was.

Darcy jumped down off the fence, bending her knees to absorb the shock as her boots struck pavement. A mother cat hissed at her from behind a dumpster, three tiny kittens mewling quietly as they fought over her nipples.

She ignored them and bolted down the alley, coming out into a side street. She checked both directions and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t see anymore Beasts. She turned right and began jogging towards the crater.

Two blocks. Two more blocks and she was home free.

There was a sound behind her, deep and angry. Darcy skidded to a stop and turned, bringing her shotgun up to aim it at the man standing behind her.

He was gorgeous, chiseled jaw, tanned skin, long black hair the same shade as the night sky. He was taller than her with bulging muscles that stretched his black t-shirt to it’s limit, nipples poking through the fabric.

Darcy licked her lips and glanced at his eyes.

Red. Red like fresh blood spilt over snow. Like poppy petals. Like fury.

Red like the eyes of every single Beast she’d ever met.

“Shit.” Darcy cursed, voice cracking from a week of under use. “Why the fuck does the world hate me this much?”

Darcy cocked her gun and brought it up in one practiced motion. It was an Asgardian Beast, gorgeous and mesmerising and so very, very deadly.

They were smarter than normal Beasts, faster, stronger, just more than a single human should be able to handle. Darcy really hated herself for suggesting that she run ahead and get the supplies back to safety faster than they would have managed with the truck running out of gas.

Darcy fired and the Beast laughed, a big booming belly laugh that made Darcy’s heart hurt because it reminded her of Thor. Thor who they’d lost to the last Asgardian Beast that had come knocking, standing alone to cover a retreat that seemed doomed to failure.

She snarled, cocked her gun and fired again. That was the gun empty, Darcy quickly broke the chamber open and shoved two of the special shells on her hip into it while the Asgardian slowly advanced on her. She prayed that she was close enough to the crater that one of the Asgardians heard the gunshots and came to investigate.

Darcy snapped the gun closed and brought it back up to her aching shoulder, she wasn’t used to using shotguns, more comfortable with a rifle but they’d run out of rifle rounds a week ago, the reason why they’d gone on the supply run to begin with. She took a deep breath to steady her aim and squeezed the trigger.

Blood bloomed along the Beast’s chest and it roared in pain and fury. Darcy tilted the gun and aimed for the Beast’s knee cap. The Asgardians definitely heard that and if she could hold it off for long enough they might get their in time to save her from getting her skull crushed like an over ripe apple.

The crack of the shotgun rang out again and the Beast fell to one knee. Darcy cracked the gun and let the empty shells drop before turning to sprint down the street. She was still only two blocks away from the crater, she still might be able to make it and she only had two Asgardian shells left.

She might have had a blade in her boot that work just as well on the Asgardian Beast as it would anything else but she did not want to get that close to a pissed off Asgardian Beast if she had anything to say about it. She liked her limbs right where they were, thank you very much.

Darcy stuffed the two remaining shells into her gun before snapping it shut, stumbling a little her foot caught on a bit of rubble. A wooshing sound passed over Darcy’s head and her blood ran cold as she realized how close the thing was.

It was right behind her and Darcy didn’t even have enough time to realize the instinctual plan running through her head was a fantastically stupid idea, even for her, before she was pitching forward to slap the ground and roll onto her back. She cocked the shotgun and aimed it blindly, panic beginning to crawl it’s way up her throat like bile.

There was a blur of tanned skin and a crack that was nothing like the report of a shotgun. Pain bloomed in Darcy’s arm and she screamed as the gun went flying through the air.

The Beast laughed and it was nothing like Thor’s, nothing like the rich, warm sound that still haunted her dreams. Darcy tried to scramble backwards, tried to get her feet back under her but the bag secured to her back was dragging and catching on the asphalt. The Asgardian just followed her, crawling low to the ground so that he loomed over her as she struggled to get away.

Fear hung in the back of her throat, a coppery that was so like blood but not and she tried to swallow around it, tried to breathe but it was like trying to breathe through a straw. Darcy cradled her broken arm close to her chest as the Beast’s head lowered so it could sniff along her neck.

Her other hand scrambled at her boot, trying to find the one thing that might save her at this point. A tongue, hot, too hot to be human, lapped along her jugular and she whimpered in the back of her throat.

Asgardian Beasts liked playing with their food, liked how the scent of fear ratcheted higher and higher as they batted a person around. All beast loved fear but the Asgardian beasts were so much better at inspiring it.

Long fangs scraped against her skin.

“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you,” Darcy muttered, not caring that Beasts couldn’t understand human speach anymore.

Her fingers caught on the hilt of her knife, once, twice, three gods damned times before she was able to wrap shaking fingers around it and yank it free. She pulled the blade up and drove it into the Beast’s stomach.

The Beast roared in pain and reared back. It snarled down at Darcy and her knife for just long enough, just a second of time and it was all she needed to pull her body up and drive her knife into the side of the Beast’s neck.

It choked on it’s own breath as Darcy drew the blade free.

“Fuck you, motherfucker!” She snarled and brought the knife down again, hitting an artery and dragging the knife around and through to open the Beast’s neck in a mockery of a smile.

Blood flew out of the wound, poured down it’s throat like water down a drain, hitting Darcy in the face and staining her teeth as the body toppled backwards. It made a satisfying thud as it hit the street and Darcy drew a trembling breath in relief.

She licked her lips and cringed at the sweet taste of the blood in her teeth. The blood tasted different for everyone, a fact most of them could do without knowing, but for Darcy it tasted like lemonade and cinnamon buns, sweet tea and hot cocoa.

Darcy wanted to vomit, just like she did every time that she tasted Beast blood but she didn’t have time for that. She glanced around for the shotgun and saw it just a few feet away, she carefully picked herself up off of the asphalt and made her way over to it. She carefully crouched and picked it up with her good arm.

She turned and began to make her way back toward the crater. She was limping and she could feel that her ankle was wrong somehow, but she couldn’t figure out why, she didn’t know when she’d hurt it and she couldn’t feel any of the pain.

Adrenaline, she recognized in the middle of the fuzzy haze that had overtaken her brain, it was the adrenaline of going up against a Beast that powerful. It was going to wear off in a few minutes and her ankle was going to hurt like a bitch when it did but the crater was close and the Asgardians should be with her soon.

“Darcy!” A voice called, full of panic and concern.

Darcy blinked slowly and looked up at the street that stretched out in front of her. There was a woman sprinting towards her, blonde with a spear in one hand and a shield on the other. Behind her was a man with dark skin and darker hair carrying a shotgun and sword.

Darcy smiled and even she could tell it wasn’t a good smile, more a dolls smile, plastic and fake. The two Asgardians reached her side in record time, pausing just outside her personal space on instinct, a hard won instinct at that.

“Freyja, Njord, I think I found the missing Beast.” Darcy swayed on her feet, back and forth, back and forth.

“I can see that,” Freyja’s voice was low and calming, “Where is the rest of your group?”

“Trying to get the truck back up and running.” Darcy told her, vision beginning to grey around the edges, narrowing down until all she could see was the other woman. “We ran out of gas on the outskirts of the city and taking half a dozen people through the city on foot is just asking to get attacked. So I went on ahead, I’m the fastest runner, it made sense. And I’m going to fall over right now so if you could catch… me…”

The not quite pain in her ankle had slowly but surely worn off and it had started throbbing insistently as she kept talking. Her hands were shaking and her blood gone ice cold. She swayed one one and then the other, stumbling a bit as she tried to put weight on her injured ankle.

Then the whole world tilted sideways and everything went black.


	2. Golden Apples

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy wakes up in the infirmary.

Darcy woke to the sound of a whispered argument. Everything hurt, her legs, her arms, her ass, even her hair felt like it aches and she had no idea where she was. The smell of apples and bleach reached her nose as she took a calming breath.

Infirmary then, or what past for an infirmary when your entire settlement lived out of tents like some 18th century army. Which meant that at least one of the people having the whispered argument was Idun.

“Now you listen here,” a young sounding woman’s voice said, “she’s not ready to get out of that bed yet, let alone go on another run. I don’t care what you or anyone else says. Darcy has done more for this community than you and all of your friends combined and if you think I’m going to compromise her health just because you want her to take a message all the way to Boston without adequate backup you are sorely mistaken.”

“It’s not Boston, it’s a valley in the North Western area of Massachusetts, we’ve heard that there’s a group of magic users there that might be able to extend the wards.” That voice was male and Darcy recognized it almost instantly.

Former Shield Agent Martin Bradley was a jackass of the highest order. He’s shown up about three months back with a contingent of heavily armed soldiers and a handful of civilians, most of them women and children. He had immediately tried to take over the military aspect of the settlement, scoffing at Freyja when she politely informed him that she was the one in charge of training and scheduling of the defenders of the settlement.

He’d shut up quickly once the blonde Asgardian had gotten him in a fighting ring and handed him his ass on a platter. Darcy didn’t exactly agree with the fighting rings on principle but she had to admit that they were effective and watching a male idiot get beaten up by an Asgardian warrior maiden was hot.

Darcy had been all for kicking him out after that but had agreed to let him stay on a provisional basis because of his combat experience and the fact that he’d brought his son with him and the boy was only five. He’d mostly kept his head down since then but it looked like someone had given him a team and he’d decided to try and flex his new found power at Idun.

“Besides, she took down an Asgardian Beast, it’s safe to say we don’t need to risk sending too many people with her.”

“Yes, she did and it was an impressive feat but it also landed her here.” Idun’s normally warm voice had gone icilly cold around the edges. “I had to give her a steady stream of Nectar for two hours to prevent internal damage, that Beast had magic in a past life and the taint of it nearly set itself into her bones. We’re lucky that Darcy has always been more resistant to the addiction than most Midgardians or we would be dealing with a vampire rather than a broken arm.”

That hadn’t been the best discovery they’d ever made. Finding out that consuming Beast blood gave you power was awesome, finding out that continuing to drink it without purging your system with Idun’s apples afterwards led to a crippling addiction that drove you a bit mad, not so much. They had three so called vampires in camp and they were very carefully monitored in case they ever got violent with anyone. They were the best of Freyja’s warrior but Darcy had never liked them all that much and what few of the two that interacted with her on a regular basis were creepy as fuck.

Darcy made a quiet noise and tried to shift and assess her injuries. Everything still hurt but in a way that she’d come to recognize as the bones, ligaments, and muscles were half healed. She got injured a lot as a result of being on one of the supply teams and as a result ate a lot of golden apples. Thor hadn’t been happy about how often she got injured but then again, Thor wasn’t here right now and he hadn’t had any say in what she did even when he had still been alive.

“Now, sweetheart.” The tone of Bradley’s voice made Darcy wince a bit. It was condicending in that alpha male talking to the poor dumb blonde way that had always made her skin crawl and you just didn’t talk to any of the Asgardian woman like that.

“Oh, did you not hear me?” Idun asked.

“Excuse me.” Bradley said.

“Get out of my infirmary. Right. Now.” Idun’s voice was full of knives dipped in the juice of belladonna berries, sweet and sharp and deadly.

There was a stretch of silence as Bradley seemed to consider his options and then there was the sound of thick soled boots hitting dirt. After a few seconds Darcy cracked one eye open and turned her head to one side to see if he was gone. He was and Idun was hurrying her way over to Darcy.

“Honestly, that man.” Idun sighed as she drew closer. “How are you feeling, dear?”

“Like I just fought a mountain.” Darcy managed to croak out past her dry mouth. “How long have I been out?”

There wasn’t an IV so it couldn’t have been that long but the tent was bright and there weren’t any lamps lit so it was either the next day or someone had managed to get the light spells up and running properly. Plus, Bradley didn’t take anything but the day shift so there was that too.

“You’ve been asleep since yesterday afternoon. You scared us there, Lightning Daughter, we thought you might go vampire for a bit.” Idun carefully ran a hand along the arm Darcy hadn’t broken.

Darcy smiled, and ooh, even her face ached, she just loved the fact that the Asgardians had started picking up Midgardian termanology and speech patterns. While the way they normally spoke would always hold a place in her heart ti was more bitter sweet now that there were so few of them left.

“You need to be more careful.” Idun scolded.

“How was I supposed to know there’d be an Asgardian Beast in the area?” Darcy asked.

Idun’s hands began to glow and she clicked her tongue as she slid them up to Darcy’s shoulder and along her torso. The brunette relaxed under the touch of her magic, letting it sink into her skin with little resistance.

“Well, you always did have the worst luck out of anyone I’ve ever met, now didn’t you?” The goddess asked.

“True.” Darcy said.

“And you decided to leave your team behind for the fourth time in as many months. I’m beginning to wonder if I should ask if you’re suicidal but, given how viciously you do fight when Death comes for you I won’t bother.”

“It’s the fourth time our truck has run out of fuel outside of the city and I’m the fastest runner on my team.” Darcy protested as the pain faded from her torso and head.

“A fact that has been noted by more than just your team, Lightning Touched,” Idun murmured and pulled her hands away, “That is all I can do without my apples. We can not risk losing you to the world, you are one of the few around here who knows what they’re doing.”

Darcy snorted and grinned because it was true, she was one of the few people in the camp who knew anything at all about organization and smoothing out interpersonal relationships. Greg wanted to keep her in camp full time but Darcy couldn’t do that, couldn’t be caged like that, not after what had happened in those first few months when the world went to shit.

“And now Agent Asshole wants me on his team.” Darcy started a slow inventory of what, exactly, Idun had done while leaking magic into Darcy’s system.

She flexed her toes, rotated her ankles, and proceeded to slowly move all the way up her body until she rotated her neck. Her hair dragged across the pillow and caught in a way that meant it was loose. She froze, briefly, eyes widening in fear as one hand flew to the side of her head, only breathing a sigh of relief when she found the thin braid still intact.

“I wouldn’t dare to take that from you.” Idun reprimanded gently.

Darcy smiled up at her sadly and rubbed the twist of gold and brown hair between her fingers. “It wasn’t you I was worried about, some of the other Midgardians think I’ve been mourning for too long.”

Idun snorted under her breathe. “Grief is never linear, never easy. It stays with you, I’ve seen it far more times than I can count in the warriors that have passed through my humble halls and these rooms made of cloth. At least you are not letting it consume you, for that is the quickest way to some of the ugliest deaths I have ever seen. I may be a healer but I know pain, I know it far more intimately than some of those men could possibly ever imagine.”

“It doesn’t help that I don’t have anything left of,” Jane she didn’t say, couldn’t say, hadn’t said for the past three years and change, “it doesn’t help any.”

Idun nodded in understanding and Darcy abruptly remembered that Idun’s husband had been killed in Asgard barely a day before its destruction, that she’d had to leave the body their as she and the surviving Asgardians fled Hela and Surtur. And then they’d landed on earth and not even a year after that the Beasts had begun to appear.

Darcy wasn’t the only one who’d lost someone, not the only person who’d lost everyone. Freyja’s brother had become a Beast and she’d had to kill him herself, alone on a tundra, half starved and barely functional after the two of them had been separated from their main group by a storm. Hod had lost his eyes when Baldur had turned, no one quite knew how but some of the Beast Blood had gotten into his eyes and apparently he was allergic.

There were more amung the human contingent, mother’s who’d lost children, children who’d lost parents. Babies they’d had to raise on goats milk because their mothers had died abruptly and woman who’d lost babies to starvation. Siblings who’d lost siblings, people who’d lost lovers and husbands and wives.

Darcy hated it, hated the pointless pain of it all. She hated Thanos for bringing this upon them and hated whoever had made the disease that caused the Beasts. Because it was man made, Doctor Banner had confirmed that before it had killed him, unable to change because of the Hulk but not making it through for some reason.

Darcy had her money on HYDRA, it felt like something they’d do but others said army, some said Russia, still others though it was some mad scientist’s experiment gone horribly wrong.

“Have the rest of my team gotten in yet?” Darcy asked.

“No, but they sent up a signal at the edge of the city last night, they should be in by noon. And Freyja would like to speak with you as soon as possible.” Idun carded her hand through golden locks the same color as her apples.

“Am I cleared yet? Nothing feels off.” Darcy told her.

“No, one more hour and then some food, if you manage to keep it down then you may go give your report to the Commander.”

“Great, do you need any help while I’m stuck here or should I just sit back and look pretty.”

That startled a laugh out of the other woman and Darcy smiled, it wasn’t often that she managed to get anything more bosterous than a chuckle out of one of the Asgardians. Then again, Idun had always been the most relaxed of the bunch, the most sheltered but the best able to cope in some twisted form of irony.

“You always look pretty dear.” Idun moved away to pick up a mortar and pestle. “The dried apples were ready this morning and since I used at least a gallon of Nectar this week to prevent you and Abraham from going vampire.”

“Abraham nearly went vampire, again?” Darcy wasn’t exactly surprised, Abraham had an unhealthy habit of getting in too far over his head and having to resort to blood. Most of them didn’t mind since he was an ex-Navy SEAL and could get shit done that none of the others could and had managed to build up a tolerance for the Blood so he didn’t need to purge as quickly or with as much nectar as the rest of them.

“Yes, there was an… incident while you were gone, his scouting group found a little girl and her newborn sister holed up in one of the high rises. Extracting them was a difficult endeavor and nearly resulted in complete disaster.” Idun handed the mortar and pestle to Darcy.

“Idiots, the lot of them.” Darcy grouched.

“Well they are men, I take that being stupidly brave when it comes to children is a given and you have no room to talk, darling.” Idun scolded.

Darcy shrugged and watched Idun retrieve a bag of apple pieces. She nodded in thanks and dropped a few slices into her mortar. She really didn’t have any room to talk, pretty much everyone in camp knew how she’d been living before the Beasts and she hadn’t gotten any better about it over the years.

She couldn’t really help it either, she loved kids and dogs. It was one of the reasons why she’d been so good with the Hulk in the last few days of delirium and fever before Banner’s body had gotten too weak to support the transformation. It was why most of the kids in camp came to her first if their parents weren’t around and why the wolf pack that had appeared on the northern edge of the city greeted her with happy puppy noises when ever she wandered into their territory.

Darcy sighed and started crushing her apple slices, they really did need to make more nectar. There was a big expedition coming up, the camp was getting too big so they’d planned for a small group to leave the city and try to settle in the open. One of the Asgardians had volunteered to set up their warding but they were also going to take a decent amount of nectar with them just in case.

“Did you pick out the seeds than you’re going to send with them?” Darcy had gotten the slice down into a fine paste and carefully poured it into the metal bowl sitting next to her bed.

“Yes, there are a few that feel ready to bloom and are responding to Margery fantastically, in fact one has already begun to sprout.” Idun said.

“That’s fantastic!” Darcy felt like her grin might split her face in half if it grew any wider. “Are there any other green thumbs that can get the seeds to respond yet?”

“Not yet but a few of them are getting close. You could always try if you wanted.” Idun offered.

“No, I’m not much of a green thumb, you know that.” Darcy continued grinding down apples into paste.

“Yes, yes, you’re strength lies with people and combat, we’ve heard it a thousand times,” Idun waved her comment off, “but you are still able to branch out into other studies and are quite good at most of them.”

Darcy blinked at her hands and then looked up at Idun, “Did you just make a plant pun?”

“I might have.” Idun came over with a jar of purified water. “I trust you still know how to start the process.”

Darcy snorted. “Of course, I’ve done it enough times.”

“Good, then we can get this done doubly fast.”


End file.
